dodge aspen restification

No More Posts for Awhile

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:58:00 +0000

Just to let anyone who happens upon this blog, I have put the Party Wagon up in storage for now. I currently don't have the space, time or $$$ to continue to work on the car. Eventually it will be brought back out of storage, and I will document it when the time comes. Until then, I am leaving this blog available for anyone to utilize as a reference.

A Busy Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Today was a busy Saturday. The weather turned really nice, and I had some good quality time to spend with the car. First up was continuing to tear down the interior.

Removed the back seat, and this is the buried treasure that I found. All sorts of crap that had built up over the past several years.

After removing the rear seat, I removed the rear carpet. Found a little bit of surface rust, but not too bad. The floor boards were still solid.

Set the console brackets up to figure out where they needed to be welded at. Removed all the remnants of carpet glue and crap to prep for the welding. After this photo was taken, I shot the bare spots with some primer until I can get to the welding. The center console I got from an eBay auction.

Went up under the car and "sorta" installed the rear anti-sway bar. I installed the frame brackets, attached the bar, and mocked up where the spring pad brackets are to go. Those also need to be welded up. In this shot, you can also see the HD Police shocks that I installed a while back. The sway bar itself came from the junkyard, out of a 1981 Chrysler Imperial. The brackets for the spring perch I purchased off of a member of one of the forums that I frequent.

Here is a shot of the brackets installed on the frame.

Here is another shot of the anti-sway bar and the brackets installed on the frame.

Here is another angle of the anti-sway bar. You can see it snake it's way over the pumpkin in the rear end.

Budget Big Brake Upgrade Completed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:40:00 +0000

Today I took a little time to complete the Budget Big Brake upgrade on the left side of the car. Much the same as the right side, here are a couple of photos.

Larger 11.75" rotor installed:

Fully assembled with the caliper and pads reinstalled:

Brake Upgrade - Right side

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Even though I got a late start today, I was able to get some work done on the Aspen. I was able to complete the budget big brake upgrade on the right side.

Budget Big Brake Upgrade

A little bit about the Budget Big Brake upgrade. The Aspen came from the factory with 10.87" front disc brakes. These were essentially the same brakes available on A-bodies (Duster, Dart, Valiant), and earlier B- and E-bodies as well as M- and J-bodies (Diplomat, Fifth Avenue, Cordoba, Imperial, Mirada) through the 80s. In the mid 70s, Chrysler's larger cars received larger 11.75" rotors. These included B- , C- and R-bodies. These 11.75" rotors are very easy to swap over to the Aspen.

From the junkyard, I snagged a pair of caliper mounting brackets from a 1980 Dodge St. Regis. I also ordered new rotors for the same car. Those are the only extra parts needed for the swap. Everything else (caliper & pads) are the same between the St. Regis and the Aspen, so I am able to reuse those parts.

Front wheel removed. Here you can see the aluminum spacer that I run to mount up the 17x8" Mustang Bullitt rims.

A straight-on shot of the stock brake rotor.

Here is a comparison shot of the 11.75" rotor from the Dodge St. Regis (left) and the 10.87" rotor from the Aspen (right).

New 11.75" rotor installed. Also replaced the wheel bearings with new.

Stock Aspen caliper and pads installed on the new 11.75" rotor.

BEFORE: Stock 10.87 rotors:

AFTER: New 11.75" rotors:

The new rotors fill out the 17" rims a little better, and should provide some additional stopping power. Tomorrow after softball I'll do the left side.

The Mailman Delivers

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:32:00 +0000

Much to my surprise this afternoon, the new brake rotors that I ordered arrived via UPS today. I wasn't expecting them until next Monday, so I was pleasently surprised. This means that I get to do my brake upgrade this weekend.

Here is a photo of one of the shiny new rotors:

As I get the brakes installed, I will do a more thorough write up of the modification.

Trans linkage installed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 03:02:00 +0000

Tonight I was able to take advantage of some of the extra daylight and worked on the car. I got the hole cut in the floor to allow the linkage to go through, and mounted up the linkage pivot to the floor pan. Next up; welding up the center console brackets, installing the floor shifter, connecting the shift linkage to the transmission, and disconnecting the column shifter from the trans.

Center Console Mock Up

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:55:00 +0000

On Saturday, the weather turned really nice so I decided to start with one of the projects, installing the center console (picked up from eBay) and converting the car from a column-shift to a console-shift. First, out came the front bucket seats and the console my dad made for me many years ago. Then, some of the interior trim came off to gain access to the carpet. With the carpet removed, I was able to get a view into the 30+ year old floor boards.

Being a daily driver for so long, and only sitting in the arid desert climate has been good to the Party Wagon. The floor boards are in great condition. I've seen some F-bodies where the carpet was the only thing holding the floor boards together. There is just a little bit of surface rust on the passenger side floorboard, but nothing major.

I put the console in for the first mock up . I realized that I'm going to have to pull the rear portion of the carpet too, which means more interior trim will have to come out and the rear lower seat cushion will also have to come out. I'll try and get to that tomorrow, if the weather cooperates. Supposed to be light showers tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Smog Check passed!!

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:56:00 +0000

It was time for the Aspen to undergo the once-every-other-year smog check here in San Diego. As always, I was very nervous in taking the car in for the test. When the test was over with, the technical told me "For as old as this car is, it runs surprisingly clean." San Diego county is one of the 6 counties in California in which the smog test is run on a dyno at two different speeds, 15mph and 25mph. Here's how the Aspen tested.

15 MPH

%CO2 measured : 14.1
%O2 measured: 0.7

HC (PPM)

Max: 194
Ave: 47
Measured: 56

CO (%)

Max: 1.26
Ave: 0.20
Measured: 0.34

NO (PPM)

Max: 1286
Ave: 554
Measured: 140

25 MPH

%CO2 measured : 14.3
%O2 measured: 0.6

HC (PPM)

Max: 161
Ave: 37
Measured: 27

CO (%)

Max: 1.06
Ave: 0.17
Measured: 0.31

NO (PPM)

Max: 1146
Ave: 468
Measured: 43

I was very happy with the results. Now, I can not have to worry about it for the next two years.

The Mail Man Delivers

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Yippie! The electric choke (for the 2bbl this time) arrived today. I ordered it yesterday from Carbs Plus. Total includeing shipping was ~$59. Had I ordered the exact same part from Napa Online, it would have been $73 + shipping. Had I ordered it through the brick & mortar Napa store, it would have been $73 + $20 freight charge and I would have had to wait 2 weeks for it!!! Hopefully I'll get it installed this weekend.

A little disappointment

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:59:00 +0000

Well, this past weekend I wanted to install my newly purchased electric choke on to the wagon. However, when I pulled the part out of the box and started to mock it up... I realized that I had the wrong part. I had an electric choke for a 1bbl. :-( I was highly irritated because I was sure that I had ordered the correct part. I went back to NapaOnline.com (where i ordered it) to verify. LIke before, I specified my car all the way down to the 2bbl carb option. Even though I specified 2bbl, it listed both chokes for 1bbl and 2bbl. I just ordred the wrong one.

So, instead I took the car for a nice drive yesterday. Had to top off the tranny fluid, it was a little low. The drive went well, although I may have discovered a possible overheating problem, I'll need to research.

Ordering the correct choke today, so maybe by next week it will be installed.

Tire Overinfated

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:17:00 +0000

This isn't about the Aspen, but about the other Dodge in the fleet, the 2008 Nitro R/T. This morning we got in after breakfast and the low tire pressure warning system came on. When I looked at the on board diagnostic readout, this is what we saw.

Eventually it triggered on all three tires that registered at 32 PSI as being low, but the left rear at 193 PSI was hillarious. Lucky for me I had the camera in the car... because when I turned it off and back on, the system reset and it now reads at 33 PSI.

Right Side Sport Mirror - Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:05:00 +0000

Last weekend the passenger's side mirror didn't get installed because I couldn't find the drill. I realized much later that night that I had loaned it to a friend and hadn't gotten it back yet. The drill has returned, and I was able to finish the mirror installation.

I used the gasket as a template to mark and drill the holes. I used one of those stepped drill bits to get the holes drilled.

Taped off the holes to put some primer down on the exposed metal to keep the rust at bay.

And viola... installed. Looks real nice with the matching one on now.

Junkyard Finds

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:00:00 +0000

This morning I went hunting through the Junkyards and ran across these two wagons.

#1 - 1978 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country

This one might look familiar to reader's of the blog. It's my old parts car wagon. It was actually the reason I went to the junkyard, to see if it was put out for parts or already sent to the crusher. It's a wierd feeling to see a car that had your name on the title in a junkyard.

#2 - 1976 Dodge Aspen

I found this one odd due to the position of the luggage rack. It is the factory luggage rack, matches the one on the Aspen (and on every F & M Wagon I've seen). But it is placed to far forward. Mine (and every other one I've seen) lines up with the rear of the car, and the front posts are above the rear door. But this one lined up with the windshield, leaving alot of space towards the rear of hte car. There were no other holes in the rear of the car (to indicate someone moved it forward after the fact). All the proper gaskets were there as well. Factory screw up?

Some Old Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:34:00 +0000

Was just digging through some old photos and ran across these. These were taken soon after brining the car to San Diego, still had the New Mexico tags on it. As you can see, the first thing I did was slap on the Mustang Bullitt rims.

Gas Prices lowest in 8 years ... at least for San Diego

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:57:00 +0000

We moved to San Diego just over 8 years ago. When we got here in November of 2000, gas prices in our neighborhood were right around 1.75-1.80 / gallon for regular unleaded. We live in the same area as we did 8 years ago, and yesterday the local gas station in our neighborhood regular unleaded was being sold for 1.75/gallon (for regular unleaded)!! This was after this station was selling regular at 3.90/gallon (for regular unleaded) just 8 months ago. What a crazy drop in prices, I love it.

Chrome Sport Mirror : Installed Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Today I did a little work on the Party Wagon. First off, I installed the missing piece of trim on the passenger side front door. The trim is green, so it will need to be resprayed. I intend on respraying all of the vinyl trim a darker maroon color to give the faded pink trim some new life. For right now, it looks Christmas festive with the red and green.

I also installed the driver's side chrome sport mirror that I snagged from the junkyard a while back. There were no installation issues at all, bolted right up. The driver's side door panel already had a piece of the cardboard perforated where the control mounts, I just had to remove it and cut through the door panel fabric to allow the control to pass through.I went to start on the passenger's side, but a hand injury from earlier in the week started acting up so I decided to call it quits for the day.

Hot B-Body Wagon

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:23:00 +0000

This was linked off of a MoparStyle, it was an eBay auction. This B-Body wagon is pretty frickin slick, very similar to how I want the wagon to end up. The copper color is pretty close to what I want on the Aspen, not sure yet about just the roof as a two-tone or the color of the two tone. Still, this is one hot wagon.

Volare "Load Runner"

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I found this article on eBay regarding the Volare "Load Runner", which was the equivalent to the Aspen SportWagon. I'm not sure if it ended up being called the "Load Runner" or not in production, but it would have matched with the Road Runner, which it drew it's inspiration from.

Diplomat Police Package Shocks Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:30:00 +0000

About a week ago I purchased a complete set of NOS M-Body (Diplomat/Gran Fury) Police Package shocks from a member of a message board I frequent. They arrived Thursday, and I spent a little while today installing them.

The Shocks

Rear Shocks Installed

I didn't get a photo of the fronts. I went for a test drive immediately after installing them. What a difference new shocks make. The front end used to float and wallow. Going over even the smallest bump would enduce several undulations before the front end would settle down. Now, it's tightened up quite a bit. I don't know of the differnce between regular shocks and the Police package shocks, cuz mine were just shot to begin with. But, this is the firmest that I've ever felt the wagon feel. Just need to replace the rear springs, add in the rear sway bar, possibly upgrade the front sway bar, and the suspension will be done for awhile.

Samples ordered

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Today I placed an order for some carpet and headliner samples. I'm going to work hard over the winter time to replace the entire interior and convert it over from red to a more modern looking dark gray/gray theme. The carpet and headliner samples will help me to choose the right color to match the trim that i'm already painting.

Pedal Dress Up installed

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:23:00 +0000

Another of my junkyard finds was a pedal dress up kit. Basically amounts to aluminum trim around the basic black pedals. I snagged mine out of the junkyard off of a 75 Chrysler Cordoba.

Before:

After:

Matches very well with the black/aluminum trim Big Foot gas pedal. :)

Also spent some time today reattaching the driver's door weatherstripping. It had come loose again, so a quick fix with some weatherstripping adhesive and almost good as new.

Rear Speaker Liftgate Wiring

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Someone on a message board asked me how I ran the wire for the rear liftgate speakers, so reposting for anyone else that wants to know.

The below photo is taken from the right side of the car, but the wiring is run down the left side of the liftgate, this is just to help explain.

I followed how the speakers were wired up in the T&C for this, with one exception. There is a small cavity just underneath and towards the edge of the rear trim panel (red arrow, there is one on each side). The wiring for both speakers enters into the cavity of the liftgate formed by the inner and outer shell. It runs along the edge of the window (inside the liftgate) just like the yellow line in the photo (except on the other side). The wiring exits out the top of the liftgate through a small hole in the upper window area.

On the T&C, there was a grommet and a hole on the upper roof area that my Aspen did not have. For the T&C, this was for the rear speaker wiring, the rear taillight wiring (for the lights on the liftgate) and for a power liftgate relase (if so equipped, mine wasn't). Instead of drilling the hole, I just ran the speaker wire up underneath the rear trim piece that holds up the headliner. You can see the wire in the red box in the photo.

I hope that this information is useful to anyone else.

Exhaust Replaced

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Even though softball season is officially over, that was just the spring season (and the World Series trip). Now we are into the fall season, but not nearly as time intensive as the spring. I've also been traveling quite a bit over the last couple of months, so work on the wagon hasn't really picked up like I wanted it to.

But, last weekend I made it a point to do something.... anything.. to the Party Wagon. I ended up replacing the exhaust on it with the exhaust from the T&C. The reason for the replacement is the Smog stations in CA. For whatever reason, I'm not too sure, the exhaust on the Party Wagon had been cut off just above the axle. When I went to smog it when I first got the car to CA, several shops refused to smog it becuase when they would insert the probe into the tailpipe, it would contact the dyno rollers and was unsafe.

I had a temporarpy piece of pipe installed just to get it smogged, and once that was done I took it off. Well, my smog check is coming up again in January, so I needed to fix the problem. I did by installing the exahaust (from the downpipe back) from the T&C into the Aspen.

I did encounter one problem. The flange that connects the cat to the downpipe, the holes are spaced out just a little bit too far. I was only able to bolt up one bolt on the flange. I will need to elongate one of the holes to get it to work. I also have a small exhaust leak, and I believe that it is coming from that flange. I could be wrong, but I will need to fix that as well.

Aaaah.. the fun of modifying an old car. :)

Junkyard Hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Well, softball season is offically over now. I should have some time to dedicate to working on the car now. I decided that this past weekend was a good time to go and roam through the junkyards to see what's out there.

I hit pay dirt!!

I have been searching and searching for a set of the 11.75" brake caliper mounts, so that I can upgrade the front disc brakes to the larger 11.75" brakes. The caliper mounts can be found in B-body Cordobas, Chargers, etc, as well as the even larger R-body Chrysler New Yorker, Dodge St. Regis, etc. All the Cordobas that I have seen, all had the older pin-style calipers (not the slider type likeon the Aspen). I found one R-body, and the bolts were so rusted that I was unable to break them loose with the tools I had.

Sunday, I found 4 sets(!!!) of the caliper mounts. A 78 Dodge Magnum, a 78 Cordoba, an 80 New Yorker and an 80 St. Regis. I pulled the mounts from the New Yorker, cuz it was the first one I saw. They came off with very little effort. Score one for budget big brake upgrade.

The second score was the 1982 Imperial in the second yard. This car still had the complete rear sway bar. I've already purchased a sway bar and a set of custom made brackets to weld to the spring caps, but I still needed the frame mounts. I picked up the entire bar, frame mounts, and end links for next to nothing!

The parts are home now, and after my trip to North Carolina I'm going to start ordering parts. Coming up I'll be doing the following:

- Replacing suspension: front and rear shocks, rear springs, rear sway bar, possible cop-size front bar.

- Upgrading brakes: budget big-brake (11.75") upgrade in the front, replacement of shoes in the rear, new master cylinder.

- Upgrading steering: new steering box (firm feel unit), new tie rod ends, and new steerign wheel (tuff-wheel lookalike).

Stay tuned.

All moved over

noreply@blogger.com (Brian T.) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:11:00 +0000

Well, we finally got everything moved over to the new house. The T&C was the last piece of the puzzle (from a car persepctive). Went over last weekend, called a tow truck, and had it flat-bedded over. Even with the cost of the flat bed, the engine and everything else that I can still get off of it made it worth it to haul it over.

Still have a little bit more settling in to do, and I should be able to start up again on working on the car. Once we're done with softball season (World Series coming up), I will finally get the engine yanked from the T&C and sent it on it's merry way to heaven.